Covid Act Now
A U.S. nonprofit that launched a COVID-19 risk-tracking website on 20 March 2020, used by some state and local governments during the pandemic, and formally wound down its data pipeline in 2024–2026.
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- Established
- 2020
- Country
- United States
- Founded
- 20 March 2020
- Founders
- Max Henderson, Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, Igor Kofman
- Legal entity
- Act Now Coalition, 501(c)(3) nonprofit (EIN 85-0613766)
- Status
- COVID data pipeline archived; API scheduled for shutoff 11 March 2026
Overview
Covid Act Now was a COVID-19 data and risk-tracking website, covidactnow.org, launched on 20 March 2020 by Max Henderson, a former Google data scientist; Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, an Alaska state legislator; and Igor Kofman, a former chief technology officer of Dropbox Paper (Yale Daily News). The site drew roughly 8 million visitors in its first week and grew into an operation of about 50, largely volunteer, staff, with support from James Tamplin, a co-founder of Firebase, who helped secure nonprofit status and lead fundraising, and with input from Georgetown University’s Center for Global Health Science and Security and Stanford University’s Clinical Excellence Research Center (University of Wisconsin–Madison). The underlying organization registered as the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Act Now Coalition (ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer).
Use during the pandemic
In March 2020, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins cited a projection chart from covidactnow.org — showing that, under only social-distancing measures, Texas hospitals could be overloaded by late April with as many as 430,000 deaths statewide — in justifying a shelter-in-place order (CBS News DFW). The same report noted that health-data expert Harry Glorikian cautioned that testing shortfalls limited the accuracy of any model at the time, while also noting that “every projection… is going to outstrip the number of beds we have in the United States” (CBS News DFW). States including Michigan and Kentucky similarly referenced the organization’s modeling when announcing their own stay-at-home orders (CBS News DFW). In 2022, a paper on public health surveillance indicators published via the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, associated with Carnegie Mellon University’s Delphi Group, cited Covid Act Now as one of the public dashboards built using CDC testing-positivity data (PNAS / Delphi Group).
Financial history
IRS filings compiled by ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer show Act Now Coalition’s reported annual revenue as approximately $1.55 million in 2020, $1.98 million in 2021, $1.54 million in 2022, $711,000 in 2023, and approximately $10.05 million in 2024 (ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer). No source read for this profile ties the 2024 increase to COVID-19 work specifically.
Winding down
The project’s own GitHub repository states that it “is archived and winding down,” with data snapshots frozen as of May 2024, and that its authenticated API is scheduled for permanent shutoff on 11 March 2026 (Act Now Coalition, GitHub). The same organization’s current website describes ongoing work on a voter-registration project unrelated to COVID-19 tracking.
What this profile does not claim
A co-founder’s own biography states that Covid Act Now “advised officials in 25+ states and the military” and “collaborated with the CDC and White House.” No independent source corroborating those specific claims was found, so they are not repeated here. No named major donor is identified; only aggregate annual revenue figures from public tax filings are available.
Timeline
- 2020
- Launches covidactnow.org on 20 March, built by Max Henderson (a former Google data scientist), Alaska state legislator Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, and former Dropbox Paper CTO Igor Kofman; the site draws roughly 8 million visitors in its first week.
- 2020
- Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins cites a covidactnow.org projection in issuing a shelter-in-place order, drawing both public health endorsement and methodological criticism; states including Michigan and Kentucky similarly reference the organization's modeling when announcing their own stay-at-home orders.
- 2020
- Registers as the 501(c)(3) nonprofit "Act Now Coalition."
- 2022
- A Carnegie Mellon-affiliated paper published via PNAS cites Covid Act Now as a public dashboard built on CDC testing data.
- 2024
- Data snapshots are frozen in May as the project is archived; Act Now Coalition's reported annual revenue rises to roughly $10 million, tied to activity unrelated to COVID tracking.
- 2026
- The authenticated covidactnow.org API is scheduled for permanent shutoff on 11 March.
What we could not verify
These claims came up in research and could not be confirmed. They are recorded here rather than published as fact or quietly dropped. If you hold a source that settles one, please tell us.
- No named major donor was found; only aggregate annual revenue figures from IRS filings are available, so the profile does not describe how the organization was funded beyond that it operated as a registered nonprofit.
- The organization's reported 2024 revenue of roughly $10 million is not shown by any source read to be connected to COVID-19 work; the same-EIN organization's current website describes an unrelated voter-registration project. No connection between this revenue and the COVID tracking site is stated.
- No major national outlet (New York Times, Washington Post, Bloomberg, Wired) coverage was located in this research pass; this does not necessarily mean none exists, only that none was confirmed by direct verification.
- A co-founder's own biography claims collaboration with the CDC, the White House and the U.S. military; this was not independently corroborated and is not stated here.
Sources
6 sources (3 tier 1, 2 tier 2, 1 first-party), each opened and read against the claim it supports. Statements the subject makes about itself are marked as such and are not treated as independent evidence. See the source policy.
Each source below was fetched and read against the claim it supports. Financial figures are drawn from the organization's own IRS Form 990 filings as compiled by ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer. Claims of collaboration with the CDC, the White House, or the U.S. military, found only in a self-supplied biography of one co-founder, are not repeated here.
- Coronavirus curve graphs used to justify shelter-in-place orders Supports: Dallas County's use of a covidactnow.org projection to justify a shelter-in-place order, and independent expert commentary on the data's limitations.
- COVIDcast indicators paper Supports: Academic citation of Covid Act Now as a public dashboard compiling CDC testing data.
- Act Now Coalition (nonprofit filing record) Supports: Legal name, EIN, 501(c)(3) registration date, and annual revenue figures 2020–2024.
- New tool helps policymakers address COVID-19 Supports: The 20 March 2020 launch date, the three founders and their backgrounds, and the site's stated purpose.
- Model response: Alum helps launch COVID data hub Supports: Co-founder James Tamplin's background, the roughly 50-person largely volunteer staff, and partnerships with Georgetown and Stanford.
- covid-data-model (repository README) Supports: The project's own statement that it is archived, with data frozen since May 2024 and the API scheduled for shutoff on 11 March 2026.
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